Wednesday, February 18, 2015

What is Brenda Chapman reading?

One of my favourite pastimes is to find a well written mystery series and read every book in order. Two the authors that I follow are, Liza Marklund and Michael Connelly, whose latest in the Harry Bosch series, Burning Room, had me turning pages late into the evening.

Connelly’s writing is straight forward and tight, depicting the life of a cop in Los Angeles Police Department with gritty, realistic detail. Harry Bosch is the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with—an everyman at the end of his career, teaching Lucy Soto, his new young partner, how to navigate the political waters and work an investigation to get results. Connelly is very good at letting the reader in on Bosch’s innermost thoughts and feelings and becoming investing in the investigation, in this case, two cold cases that intersect ten years after the crimes. Bosch has...[read on]

Jacques Rouleau has moved to Kingston to look after his father and take up the position of head of the town’s Criminal Investigations Division. One hot week in late September, university student Leah Sampson is murdered in her apartment. In another corner of the city, Della Munroe is raped by her husband. At first the crimes appear unrelated, but as Sergeant Rouleau and his new team of officers dig into the women’s pasts, they discover unsettling coincidences. When Kala Stonechild, one of Rouleau’s former officers from Ottawa, suddenly appears in Kingston, Rouleau enlists her to help.

Stonechild isn’t sure if she wants to stay in Kingston, but agrees to help Rouleau in the short term. While she struggles with trying to decide if she can make a life in this new town, a ghost from her past starts to haunt her.

As the detectives delve deeper into the cases, it seems more questions pop up than answers. Who murdered Leah Sampson? And why does Della Monroe’s name keep showing up in the murder investigation? Both women were hiding secrets that have unleashed a string of violence. Stonechild and Rouleau race to discover the truth before the violence rips more families apart.